Nearly 500 delegates attended the two-day event at the London Hilton on Park Lane to gain inspiration from an impressive range of speakers and panel discussions. Danny Meyer, the CEO of New York-based Union Square Hospitality Group, spoke warmly of his experiences in London as a young man and the need for restaurant operators to combine technical and the emotional skills.
“Staff need to make guests feel that they are on their side,” he said. “Within minutes of being born, we have experienced the first transaction of our lives. As a baby we receive eye contact, a smile, a hug and food from our mothers. We are seeking those four elemental things in everything we do.”
The winners of the hotel-school facebook competition were three Bournemouth Universtiy students Suzanne Parr, Eleanor Moore and Julian Dombrowsky, who put in extremely polished performances in their film on gaining sustainable competitive advantage through training.
Kate Levin MIH, general manager of the Capital Hotel, London, and Andrew Foulkes, hotel manager, Gidleigh Park, Chagford, Devon shared the benefits of the Master Innholders Scholarship which saw them complete a two-week management course at Cranfield School of Management in Bedford.
In a moving interview, chef Philip Howard spoke of his personal battle with cocaine addiction and highlighted the help available via the Ark Foundation. British Hospitality Association chief executive Ufi Ibrahim FIH gave an update on its campaign to reduce accommodation VAT and urged hoteliers to lobby their local councilors and MPs on this issue.
View all the presentations online.
